Element Types

What are Elements?

Elements are the building blocks of any Castaway Project. Setting them up correctly at the start is an important part of Building your Forecast. Elements are used to create your chart of accounts, map data from external sources and generate comprehensive reports.

Elements are grouped into four categories:

• Profit and Loss Elements
• Balance Sheet Elements
• Driver Elements
• Inbuilt Elements

---

Profit & Loss Elements

Type	Purpose
S   Sales	Model income and revenue, accrued and prepaid income, associated cash flow, invoicing method and expected bad debts.
C   Costs	Model expenses, cash flow and invoicing method. Expenses such as Wages and Costs of Goods Sold for Inventory should be set up in the corresponding elements
W  Wages	Record wages and salaries, PAYG (PAYE), superannuation / pension and payroll tax in a single element
I    Inventory (CoGS)	Model costs of goods or services sold, inventory purchases / balances, work in progress, and inventory write-offs / revaluations
P   Provisions	Use to provide non-cash expenses on the Profit and Loss and are accrued to a provision account on the Balance Sheet. You're able to change the Provision Type to either Doubtful Debt, Inventory Write-down, Staff or Other (general) provisions, and their associated write-offs
I   Tax	An Inbuilt element where Income Tax settings & payment options are set. You can also set your Cashflow Methods.
D Dividend	An Inbuilt element where dividend settings & payment options are set

---

Balance Sheet Elements

Type	Purpose
Bank Account	Available in the Bank Accounts section, alongside the inbuilt main bank account. It is recommended to rename the main bank account to your primary trading account rather than creating a separate element. Supports interest rate settings for both positive and negative (overdraft) balances.
Debtors	Records separate categories of debtors for tracking purposes, particularly where they have different receivable terms or are otherwise significant. Once created, a Debtor element can be selected within Sales element settings under Debtor Reporting.
Fixed Asset	Record asset purchases, depreciation and amortisation, asset sales and revaluations.
Investment	Record investment details including amounts invested, associated investment income and treatment (reinvested or received to a specified bank account) and sales of investments.
Loans Payable	Record money borrowed from external parties and associated loan terms.
Other Asset/Liability	Model balance sheet accounts that cannot be maintained via inbuilt elements or other element types. Can record revenue, expenses, cash receipts and cash payments, with the balance appearing on the balance sheet. The Account Type setting controls the reporting position on the Funds Flow Statement.
Working Capital Finance	Record invoice finance arrangements including facility limits, available facility calculation methods, drawdown assumptions, administration charges and interest rates.
Capital	Record capital and reserve balances and changes on the balance sheet, or to adjust inbuilt retained earnings.

---

Driver Elements

Drivers introduce non-financial data into Castaway for advanced modelling or reporting additional information. Learn more about Driver Elements HERE

D Driver

Available in the Drivers section. Use to record extra data that can be displayed on reports (via report formulas) and charts or via % of Drivers and Add Formula data entry methods to generate forecast data. More information HERE

---

Inbuilt Elements

Castaway is built on three-way modelling principles. To maintain the dynamic links between the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, certain elements are automatically created and updated by the system. These are known as inbuilt elements.

Many element types will also auto-create additional accounts when configured, known as Partner Elements. Understanding how these work is important when Mapping your Chart of Accounts. For example, setting up a Fixed Asset element automatically creates corresponding Depreciation and Accumulated Depreciation accounts, which can then be mapped if using an external data source.

The following inbuilt elements exist in every Castaway file:

Inbuilt Element	How it Arises
Accruals and Prepayments	Arise via the Invoice Method setting in Sales and Cost elements. Wages elements also give rise to accruals and prepayments depending on the Wage Adjustment Method and PAYG/Superannuation/Payroll Tax cash flow method settings.
Asset Revaluation Reserve	Created automatically when the Allow Revaluations setting is enabled within a Fixed Asset element. The reserve appears in the Equity section of the balance sheet.
Bad Debt and Inventory Write-offs	Arise via the Expected Bad Debts setting in Sales elements and the Expected Inventory Obsolescence setting in Inventory elements.
Debtor Finance	An inbuilt element within the Finance section of the Forecast Explorer.
Depreciation and Amortisation	Controlled within Fixed Asset elements via the Depreciation Method setting.
Dividends	An inbuilt element created automatically in the Forecast Explorer after the non-operating expense section. Dividend settings and payment options are configured here.
GST/VAT	GST provisions and payables are automatically created and maintained via tax settings in Forecast Properties and individual element GST payment settings.
Income Tax	An inbuilt element created automatically in the Forecast Explorer after the other expense section. Income tax settings and payment options are configured here. Also has inbuilt Provision and Payables lines in the current liabilities section of the balance sheet.
Interest Income and Expense	Arise through interest settings and balances in Bank Account, Loans Payable and Investment elements.
Inventory Balance	Closing inventory balances on the balance sheet result from differences between COGS and purchases set within Inventory elements.
Main Bank Account	An inbuilt element in the Bank Accounts section. Where no additional bank accounts are created, all cash flow from elements transacts through this account.
Profit/Loss on Sale of Assets	Arises via the Allow Asset Sales setting within Fixed Asset elements. The gain or loss is calculated based on sales data entered against the data entry lines activated by this setting.
Retained Earnings	An inbuilt element automatically updated each month by the net profit reported on the P&L. Adjustments can be made via Capital element transfers if required.
Payroll Liabilities	Arise through the Wages element, particularly via the PAYG/Superannuation/Payroll Tax calculations feature.
Trade Debtors and Creditors	Arise automatically from deferring receipts and payments in Sales, Cost and Inventory elements. Payables and receivables are also created through deferring cash flow in other elements such as Fixed Assets and GST.
Balance Sheet (BalSht)	Located at the bottom of the chart of accounts under System. Used to forecast when actual balances are due for receipt or payment.